KARACHI: Additional Collector of the Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-II Sami-Ul-Haq has issued Order-in-Original (ONO) against the renowned multinational company M/s Halliburton Worldwide Limited (DHL Global Forwarding) against its alleged involvement in massive mis-declaration in terms of value, description and weight of the imported consignments i.e. oil well chemical (Chem Latex-3000).
The importer M/s Halliburton Worldwide Limited electronically filed the Goods Declaration (GD) KAPE-HC-51813-11-11-2014 for the import of Oil Well Chemical for Oil Well Project from USA against IGM No488. The importer in the Goods Declaration (GD) declared unit value of Chem Latex-3000 at US$0.0640per Kg with total invoice value of US$1026 under PCT Heading 4002.1100 at one per cent Custom Duty.
In order to check the veracity of the cleared consignments whether the importer has correctly paid the correct and legitimate amount of duty/taxes under reference, the GD was selected for scrutiny in terms of Section 80 of Customs Act, 1969. Subsequently, the test report of the sample was revealed that the imported consignment was consisted of synthetic co-polymer (styrene co-polymer) instead of Chem Latex-3000.
The MCC-Appraisement (East) in its contravention report against the importer M/s Halliburton Worldwide Limited stated that the importer has deliberately and willfully mis-declared the value, weight and classification of the consignment to defraud the government revenue.
Thus, the importer M/s Halliburton Worldwide Limited violated the Sections 32(1), 32(2), 32(A) and 79(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 and Section 33 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance-2001 and punishable under Clause 14, 14 A and 45 of the Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969; Clause 11(C) of the Section 33 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. In the final judgment made by the Additional Collector, Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-II stated that the charges leveled against the importer in Contravention Report stand established.
The Additional Collector-ADC further ordered to confiscate the offending goods under Clause (14) and (14A) of the Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 for violation of the provision of Sections 32(1), (2), 32(A) and 79(1) ibid. However; an option has given to the importer to redeem the offending goods under Section 181 of Customs Act, 1969on payment of fine equal to 35per cent of the value of the goods which is amounting to Rs1970800 (ascertained value of the goods is Rs5630858 as prescribed under SRO499(I)/2009 in addition of duty/taxes leviable thereon.
A penalty of Rs700,000 was also imposed on the importer under clause 14 and 14(A) of the Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969.
